Rapid synthesis of flower-like Cu2O architectures in ionic liquids by the assistance of microwave irradiation with high photochemical activity.

A novel and facile protocol for the rapid synthesis of flower-like Cu(2)O architectures is reported in the presence of ionic liquid 1-n-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([BMIM]BF(4)) with the assistance of microwave irradiation. The hierarchical structures are assembled from many thin nanosheets with tunable sizes by adjusting the amount of [BMIM]BF(4) in the reaction solution. Noticeably, the flower-like Cu(2)O architectures present a high surface area of 65.77 cm(2) g(-1) with a band gap of about 2.25 eV, and exhibit high and stable photochemical activity for the reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) under visible light irradiation. A reasonable model of an absorption and diffusion-limited aggregation process is proposed for explaining the possible formation mechanism of the flower-like Cu(2)O. The approach described in this study provides a feasible and rapid method to synthesize flower-like Cu(2)O with a hierarchical structure that is ready for application in the fields of photocatalytic hazard pollutants. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011